Deja Vu

Summary:
or Not on My Watch AU from chapter 3 of New Moon. Bella is taken to Florida with Renee. However, she is even more heart-broken without Jacob Black to cling to. She is sent to an asylum by a distraught Renee. Alice wasn't looking. She'd promised to leave Bella alone. But sometimes the visions come before you ask. She couldn't help it. She sees Bella being sent off and goes to convince Edward she really isn't better off without him. "Because I'm not going to let you do this to her! I know what it's like in there, Edward. Maybe I don't remember it, but... look. What more harm can you do?"

12. Chapter 12

His eyes gloss over her neck, widening as they do so. He traces the soft skin with a finger, and she shivers.

“No,” he whispers. I can tell it is a lie. He will do it. He has to.

“I can’t change her.”

“Well, I can.” He clearly doesn’t believe me. So I up the ante. “Or I could always get Jazz to do it.” It’s a groundless threat. Both of us know it, but it doesn’t stop him from growling at me.

“He’ll kill her.”

“He wouldn’t be the first.”

“What do you mean?”

He seems honestly bewildered. I sigh. “Edward, look at her. Look at her. Does she look alive? Does she look like she’s doing ‘just fine without you’? You have literally driven her insane. Did I say that earlier? I tend to get the times mixed up, but what do I care. I know it’s true. You have to. Because…”

“Because?” he prompts, still not looking up, eyes devoutly downward.

“Because you can’t do any more harm.”

Blonde. Kind. Man.

It’s how you identify people in your visions. You don’t know names, only attributes. The small part of you that’s watching instead of participating thinks Carlisle.

He rings the door.

“Carlisle’s here,” I announce. The doorbell rings.

“That’s so creepy,” Edward mutters.

“Says the kid who can read minds.”

He laughs, sort of. It is half an honest sound and half a bitter mockery of his own emptiness.

Bella whimpers and shifts in his arms.

Carlisle walks in, the rest of the family following. I smile at them. “Hi, all.”

Rose’s eyes open. “God, she looks awful. I remember when I was like that. Who betrayed and brutally raped her?”

I groan. “Well, our brother did the betraying… broke her heart.”

“I will kill him.”

“You’re not the first to make that offer.”

“I’m the first who’s going to actually follow through with it.” Rosalie steps threateningly toward him. He clutches Bella tighter.

Emmett places a hand on her shoulder. “Damn, Edward, what the hell were you thinking? Do you have any idea… Edward, she needed you.”

In our family, there is a great correlation between the separate love stories. Emmett is projecting, quite accurately, the first few months he spent with Rosalie, when she wouldn’t even talk to him from guilt and fear. He wouldn’t give up. And now, since he was there when she needed him, they are so happy…

“No, she didn’t. She wanted me. She needed to be safe. It was just a crush.”

“Does this look like just a crush?”

“No…” he admits.

“Then, for God’s sake, fix it! You screwed up. Make it better.”

Carlisle interjects, in his usual pacifistic manner, “Edward, Alice, you’re both right. Edward can’t stand to change her… but he was wrong to leave her. Edward, I will change Bella, if…”

“YES!” I squeal. “Oh, this will fix everything! She doesn’t have to even remember this!” “With or without your consent, if, and only if, you can obtain hers.” “What? NO!” Edward and I exclaim at the exact same time. He continues his protest first. “Carlisle, she’s mine. I won’t let you curse her!”

“She’s my daughter. You gave her up, Edward. If it comes to that, I think I have every right to change her. And I’m your father too. It’s my decision. I lead this family.”

Authority. Such a convenient bludgeon. Time to make my case. “But she’s comatose. She can’t move.”